Building Community Through Music, Marketing & Mental Health | Buying Local #85

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;08;08
Speaker 1
thanks for jumping on. Thanks for reaching out. Of course. Yeah. I know we want to talk about mind blown. Festival. Right. Mind blown festival.

00;00;08;11 – 00;00;09;23
Speaker 2
Yes.

00;00;09;25 – 00;00;22;20
Speaker 1
And, obviously we’re doing the, the post up here as far as, how it went and what it was and all that kind of fun stuff. And then and then I just figure we talk about you and your business and kind of who you are and what you doing and all that fun stuff. That’s cool. Yeah.

00;00;22;27 – 00;00;33;13
Speaker 2
And I know we’re supposed to talk about my thing, but I do have to ask, like what? What inspired you to get into, like print media? Is it just that it’s unexpected or, like, kind of a pattern interrupter?

00;00;33;15 – 00;00;59;25
Speaker 1
No. Yeah, I know, right. It is. No, actually. So years ago I had this is like probably 2018, maybe 2019. I had bought into Saratoga Bride magazine, the digital side of it. So my business partner, Chad Beatty, he owns, Saratoga today in Saratoga, the newspaper down here. And, so I had, he was a client.

00;01;00;04 – 00;01;08;00
Speaker 1
He had had no digital presence for Saratoga Bride. So I was like, hey, like, let me buy in. So that was kind of like my foray into the publishing world.

00;01;08;05 – 00;01;36;18
Speaker 1
And then, in 2021, I was Chad had not seen any slowdown in the publishing world. And so I was looking to insulate my business and the whole, like from a communication standpoint, we were always reaching out to all the press outlets, trying to get them to pick up press releases for our clients and do articles, and it’s such a hard thing to do unless you pay most of these folks money.

00;01;36;20 – 00;01;57;01
Speaker 1
And so I was like, this is bullshit. And, I was like, we’re starting our own. So that was kind of how it all, kind of, you know, the short version of it. But it was, and, you know, it, like when you look at marketing right now, it’s like there’s so many channels, so many places for people to be.

00;01;57;01 – 00;01;59;26
Speaker 1
And like.

00;01;59;29 – 00;02;26;29
Speaker 1
We wanted to make sure that we were putting our best foot forward for our clients. And it was like, well, there’s still a need for print, albeit it is a very specific, type of person that’s picking up a print newspaper. So, you know, definitely. I mean, it’s helpful. It works. And then now with, with I come into the forefront, I mean, earned media, digitally speaking, is of huge value for everyone.

00;02;27;01 – 00;02;39;11
Speaker 1
So it’s like it just we kind of got lucky from that fashion where it was like, you know, we have five years almost of, being in that space. And, I’ve been in the earned media space, so that’s good.

00;02;39;11 – 00;02;41;25
Speaker 2
So you just bet. You just bet correctly at the right time.

00;02;41;28 – 00;02;57;03
Speaker 1
I got lucky, Chuck. Yeah, it was like, it really was just dumb luck that we happen to get into this industry. And now it’s it’s at least on the digital side, it’s become very, very important for people to be able to get get out there, digitally speaking.

00;02;57;03 – 00;03;11;22
Speaker 2
So yeah, until last year, I really I had never even written a press release and didn’t understand the value. But, I guess to kind of get into the mind and stuff. I was playing a game last year called how many times can I Get on the news? Because I was at a protest and someone pulled a chainsaw on me and my daughter.

00;03;11;22 – 00;03;34;20
Speaker 2
We actually weren’t even at the protest. We were just walking through the protest. Oh, man. Downtown Glens Falls dipole the chainsaw. And so I posted about it on Facebook and I was like, anyone know who this guy was? And then the news wanted to interview me. And so I was like, oh, that’s very interesting. And so then, you know, I’ve done tons of, I would say, like short form content, YouTube, tons of blogs, you know, lots of organic content.

00;03;34;20 – 00;03;47;29
Speaker 2
I’ll do some paid stuff, but it’s really not like my specialty. And so I was like, wow, this is a really interesting leverage point, especially for such a word of mouth town, because, after I was on the news, everyone was like, Chuck, I saw you on the news, and I was like, wow, I didn’t have to pay for that.

00;03;47;29 – 00;04;03;07
Speaker 2
And everyone’s saying my name. That’s very interesting. And so I started kind of trying to crack, like, what can you do that’s so newsworthy that you don’t have to pay for the ad space in the paper? And so we’ve done a couple really fun campaigns. I don’t know if you heard about the funky food drive last year.

00;04;03;07 – 00;04;19;03
Speaker 2
That was probably, I guess, one. Yeah. I mean, he didn’t pay. He paid me a couple grand to put on that whole campaign and run the food drive. We fed 200 families, and he got a ton of attention and business out of that. So it’s like, that was when I realized like, oh, wow, you know, I’m already doing values based marketing.

00;04;19;03 – 00;04;37;23
Speaker 2
I’m already doing like, how do you demonstrate why people should care about what you do at all? And usually my leverage point for why people should care is like, you’re doing something that matters to their heart. And so that’s kind of what Mind Blown also taught me is like, I’d never done fundraising before, I’d never done an event before.

00;04;37;23 – 00;04;49;12
Speaker 2
And we raised, you know, $10,000 our first year for suicide prevention. I was like, wow, people really showed up for this. So can you tell me how much you know about mind blowing before I give you too much context?

00;04;49;15 – 00;04;52;26
Speaker 1
Yeah. Other than it’s at it was at the

00;04;52;26 – 00;04;59;20
Speaker 1
shirt factory. You guys had all sorts of fun stuff going on over there, and that’s about the range of my knowledge on it, so.

00;04;59;22 – 00;05;23;03
Speaker 2
Okay. Yeah. So this this was a year or two. We had a much smaller team this year. And for our, we had a team of six last year, which, included a designer and another marketer. So it was much noisier the first year. The second year, it was three of us. I was the only marketer and my friend who was supposed to be my business partner on it, was either sick or traveling for the last three months before the festival.

00;05;23;03 – 00;05;43;26
Speaker 2
So we definitely, especially being volunteer led, it was not as, people didn’t hear about it as much as I would have liked them to beforehand. But that being said, we still raised, a little more than we did last year. We paid 17 bands to play. We, oh wow. We had two stages, made some incredible relationships.

00;05;43;26 – 00;06;02;16
Speaker 2
Like, we’re going to be meeting with Cafe Lena about their, new grant to, they got a grant to prescribe concert tickets as a mental health initiative in that, and so they want to work with us on it because we’re so tied in with music and mental health. But the basic idea of it is, you know, how Jam Fest kind of disappeared for a while.

00;06;02;19 – 00;06;04;09
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;06;04;12 – 00;06;22;00
Speaker 2
I’m a person who’s been known as, even if I don’t know how to do it, I can figure it out. And so this collective of, punks came to me, like, 15 different punk bands, and they were like, there’s no jam fest. We know that you love the punk ideology and you’ll do paperwork. Will you help us put on a festival?

00;06;22;06 – 00;06;40;22
Speaker 2
And you and this our work? Yeah. I’ve been known as the punk that does paperwork at this point, because the whole alternative scene is allergic to bureaucracy, but I God help me, I love, I love writing an essay. I love writing a grant. I, I just there’s something about the process of doing a couple difficult things to get somewhere that most people don’t even try to get to.

00;06;41;00 – 00;07;01;22
Speaker 2
Very satisfying. So, you know, I wrote some, wrote some letters, got to some sponsors, you know, went through all the procedures with insurance and porta potties and all those unfun things about putting on a festival. And it was really successful and it was really fun. And, having been almost entirely digital my whole career, 15 years, I was like, wow, in-person events.

00;07;01;25 – 00;07;19;14
Speaker 2
This is amazing. You know, I was like, having so much fun. And like, all the sponsors were super stoked about being associated with this, like suicide prevention, mental health and like local music. So I was like, wow, you know, here’s the value of sponsorship, something I had never sold before. So it was like an entirely new paradigm for me.

00;07;19;14 – 00;07;36;00
Speaker 2
And I had to build a lot of skills on the fly. But then, you know, we did it again, and then now we’ve got the attention of a couple, like larger local bands that would help us that we might need to, like, increase the venue size if they actually sign on as headliners. It’s got a lot of momentum behind it.

00;07;36;00 – 00;08;07;12
Speaker 2
And I think the core of it is that the people involved really do want to make Glens Falls a safe and wonderful place to be somebody, even if you’re different. And to know that you’re not alone, and to know that your highest expression of your joy and aliveness is like super, super welcome. And you get to see other people’s highest expression of joy and aliveness when they’re dressed up, when they’re dancing, when they’re unapologetically, you know, like pierced and tatted and, you know, like you don’t always see all the people in one place, as long as you feel like the only freak in town.

00;08;07;12 – 00;08;23;27
Speaker 2
But it’s like, look at these beautiful breaks, you know? And so it’s it’s wonderful. And so we’re going to keep, keep, building on that year after year. And we’re also going to try to start doing monthly or quarterly local shows that are a lot smaller and more achievable. Just to kind of keep the momentum going.

00;08;23;29 – 00;08;39;11
Speaker 2
My, this will someday be a nonprofit. And a brand is called Don’t Delete Yourself Now. So we’re probably gonna have those be the don’t delete yourself shows and the whole premises. Hope you had a great time. We’ll see you at the next one. You know, don’t delete yourself in between. Because we have a lot of friends that do struggle with suicidal ideation.

00;08;39;11 – 00;08;57;12
Speaker 2
And so it really is just for the actual individuals I know who need a reason to stay. And so it keeps us very motivated, you know, to keep going. But yeah, it’s a good cause it’s it’s fun. And, it’s much more satisfying than just doing pure digital content, which is what I’ve done for so long.

00;08;57;14 – 00;09;22;29
Speaker 1
And so I want to talk about your mainstay business, but it I don’t want to, move away from my blood festival yet. So, it’s so the, the I want to say the premise, but the idea behind it is you’re just trying to raise awareness and give support to people that are dealing with suicide. It’s suicidal ideation.

00;09;23;02 – 00;10;01;00
Speaker 1
And it’s it’s really wild to me of how prevalent that is in society right now across the board. Like, I mean, you know, we do work we do a lot of different things as an organization. And we’re, we are involved in a lot of different industries. And, and I feel like across the board this is a major concern that it’s, you know, whether it’s a blue collar industries or, you know, or veterans or it it’s it seems like that suicide has become very, very prevalent in our society at like.

00;10;01;03 – 00;10;04;18
Speaker 1
Any thoughts on why that is? It’s just so wild to me. I.

00;10;04;20 – 00;10;37;22
Speaker 2
I think it’s multi-pronged. In my experience, because I’ve probably talked 40,000 or 40,000, I’ve probably talked 40 people out of suicide at this point. And so I guess to tie it back in a little bit, heart support was our fiscal sponsor. And who benefited from, our fundraiser. And so heart support goes to concerts and we provide, a space where you can write on a wall what you’re struggling with, or people can write you letters of support under what you’re struggling with, or if you’re having a panic attack or you’re having a really bad mental health episode, we’ll sit with you and you can talk to us, you can cry, will hold you.

00;10;37;25 – 00;10;58;10
Speaker 2
You know, it’s like mental health triage is basically what we’re doing. But what I’ve learned from doing that is that a lot of people feel really alone and they don’t have a mechanism for connection. And so that’s why Mind blown was supposed to be a mechanism for connection for the people on the fringe. Because especially if you’re different, you might really believe that nobody wants to know you, nobody understands you.

00;10;58;14 – 00;11;22;16
Speaker 2
And if you spend more and more time online, the division, you know, your your algorithm can be really curated to, to show you that there’s hate in this world, that there’s violence in this world, that you should be getting ready for a civil war. You know, it’s like no matter what side of the, the spectrum you’re on, which people always assume, like, I’m a, like a heavy leftist, but I’m actually not, I, I hang out with all kinds of people.

00;11;22;16 – 00;11;43;11
Speaker 2
But when I was living in Portland, Oregon, the messaging I got was very violent and very against my neighbors. And so if that’s all you’re consuming and that’s all you believe about the people around you, of course you feel hopeless, especially if you’re economically disadvantaged or you come from a traumatized background or you struggle with addiction, like people have so many challenges, every single person.

00;11;43;13 – 00;12;05;05
Speaker 2
And if we don’t have a space to talk about what we’re being challenged by and we can’t look somebody in the eyes and feel seen, I mean, it starts to divorce you from your humanity. You know, you start to feel hollow. And so, you know, even though it’s uncomfortable to face these challenges and be there with people through their hard times, that’s like so much of what it is to be alive.

00;12;05;07 – 00;12;21;12
Speaker 2
And so I our hope is that mind blowing in these events gives people a space to gather regularly, not just once, but you see the same people again and again, and you get to deepen those community that, that, cohesion is what I call it, including people from different backgrounds, because we have, you know, people who voted this way and people who voted this way.

00;12;21;14 – 00;12;40;16
Speaker 2
We both like heavy music. I’ve had so many good conversations with people who thought that we wouldn’t get along because we we both like the same kind of music. So for me, it’s about it’s always been about storytelling and connection as a way to convince people that you have more people who are going to love you than you could ever dream of.

00;12;40;19 – 00;13;03;11
Speaker 2
And this is speaking as a person who has looked over the edge and decided to walk back to. So it’s like, I know viscerally how painful it is sometimes and how tempting it can be to leave. But, yeah, I think people are just scared and lonely and they don’t see a way out. And so we have to show that the those little specks of light to follow, to hopefully give them a reason to stay or get involved and start helping other people too.

00;13;03;13 – 00;13;34;19
Speaker 1
It’s interesting that in an age where we’re so digitally connected all the time to everyone that that this is the thing, right? Even though we’re more digitally connected, people are feeling more alone, they’re feeling less, a part of a community. And, and so I think what I hear you saying is that mind blowing really gives, in-person space for people to come together and be around each other and talk and just try to combat that loneliness a little bit.

00;13;34;21 – 00;13;53;07
Speaker 2
Right. And with the encouraging piece of, like, you don’t have to show up and like, be normal about it. Like, please don’t be normal. Please be as loud and proud about what makes you different as possible. We had a person in the mosh pit who was in a wheelchair with a bright green cast. You know, like like I’ve seen people come as clowns, as drag queens, as pirates.

00;13;53;07 – 00;14;01;23
Speaker 2
Like, it’s just really beautiful to see people celebrate. Like, I’m a huge dork. And here’s what makes me happy. You know, that’s what I love to see. That’s what lights me up.

00;14;01;25 – 00;14;15;27
Speaker 1
Yeah. What? So you’re too. Obviously. I mean, you’re probably a little more organized this year than you were in year one, right? That just kind of comes naturally. What are some of the things that you saw that just improved the festival from your one year to?

00;14;15;29 – 00;14;41;17
Speaker 2
I would say the best part was that we had more young bands, we had more people under 25 playing and the passion and professionalism of passion and professionalism I saw from these punk rockers under 25. I was blown away. They we were behind schedule and they worked with me to like, fine tune their sets so that we wouldn’t, close late and lose the venue because Eric is like, if you go past 9 p.m., don’t call me, you know?

00;14;41;20 – 00;15;00;23
Speaker 2
And so we were 30 minutes behind. So I was like, what’s going to happen? We’re going to cut a band. But all the young bands worked together to shorten their sets by one song so that we wouldn’t lose the venue like they were so talented, and some of them just graduated high school that weekend and then drove up here and played, and they don’t even know how great they are.

00;15;00;25 – 00;15;29;12
Speaker 2
Like, they don’t even know how talented they are. They don’t even know how much life is ahead of them. And so getting to be their first festival or their first big stage, or like their first out of out of town show for the kids who drove from like, more remote communities like Niskayuna like that, I’m like, I’m getting chills right now just thinking about how beautiful it was to see that that passion and that potential and that talent and these young people who do understand also important the importance of meeting in person.

00;15;29;12 – 00;15;46;19
Speaker 2
And many of them are organizing their own local shows for kids under 25. And they’re seeing, you know, that cohesion in their little pockets. But I think those are the kids that are most at risk. And so to see those those like, you know, those champions, that I didn’t even know, existed until I met them that day like that.

00;15;46;19 – 00;15;48;16
Speaker 2
That was by far my favorite part.

00;15;48;19 – 00;16;10;12
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, it’s funny you say that about the younger your, music community. My son is in a band locally, and they, you know, he just turned 18, and, and they’re doing that. That’s similar kind of stuff. It’s fun to fun to see it. But there is a lot I mean, to to your point, like, I think every weekend even sometimes during the week and like we doing it’s like, oh, we got gigs, you know, like and they’re playing all over the place.

00;16;10;12 – 00;16;11;04
Speaker 1
It’s fun.

00;16;11;07 – 00;16;15;07
Speaker 2
And they’re playing in abandoned buildings. They’re playing in basements. I’ve been crazy shows.

00;16;15;14 – 00;16;19;29
Speaker 1
They literally play in a place called The Basement in Glens Falls, like, oh, well.

00;16;20;01 – 00;16;21;18
Speaker 2
What’s your son’s band?

00;16;21;21 – 00;16;23;12
Speaker 1
Roblox tycoon.

00;16;23;14 – 00;16;25;07
Speaker 2
Who’s your son?

00;16;25;09 – 00;16;27;27
Speaker 1
Liam. Liam Nelson.

00;16;27;29 – 00;16;29;02
Speaker 2
I love Liam.

00;16;29;06 – 00;16;33;14
Speaker 1
Yeah, he’s a great he’s a good kid. He’s a good, super talented, super talented.

00;16;33;17 – 00;16;37;08
Speaker 2
I love him so much. He’s such a good kid. Wow. Okay.

00;16;37;11 – 00;16;37;24
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.

00;16;37;24 – 00;16;38;13
Speaker 2
Wow, that.

00;16;38;16 – 00;16;48;20
Speaker 1
That’s great. Yeah, yeah. That’s funny. I was wondering if you would have another band. I guess they’re. I guess they’re somewhat popular. I mean, you know, I’m. I’m an old man, so I’m a little removed from that, from that scene.

00;16;48;20 – 00;16;52;07
Speaker 2
But did you hear about what happened when they played mind blown?

00;16;52;09 – 00;16;53;09
Speaker 1
No.

00;16;53;12 – 00;17;14;28
Speaker 2
So, they were supposed to have a drum kit delivered and it didn’t show up. And so this was actually my favorite moment of the entire day. And they know this. They didn’t have a drum set so they couldn’t play. And so instead of just going off, they did an acapella screamo set. And it was in saying it was so crazy, it was so funny.

00;17;15;00 – 00;17;23;29
Speaker 2
And it just like the way that they improvise their way through to still get to play even without a drum set was. Well, yeah, I know, I think you know those guys.

00;17;24;02 – 00;17;37;06
Speaker 1
Yeah. I think maybe he did tell me that actually. So, but yeah, they’re fun. And I mean, I’ve got to sing. Got to see him play at the like at the basement. His first show. The bass and I went to see that and stuff. And it’s fun to have these little cool little crew kids they got.

00;17;37;06 – 00;17;38;19
Speaker 1
And to your point.

00;17;38;21 – 00;17;41;11
Speaker 2
You look tall. I don’t know how you would fit in the basement. Oh, I.

00;17;41;12 – 00;17;50;17
Speaker 1
Mean, it was definitely, you know, I wish I was taller, but, if I was just underneath the wrapper, you know, you want to go. Yeah. Yeah.

00;17;50;21 – 00;17;53;25
Speaker 2
That is so funny. I did not expect to connect with you around Roblox tycoon today.

00;17;53;25 – 00;17;55;25
Speaker 1
But I know, I know, an amazing.

00;17;55;28 – 00;18;01;25
Speaker 2
Yeah. Liam up top notch. Love that kid. He should definitely. I know he’s doing that.

00;18;01;28 – 00;18;08;13
Speaker 1
So, so your three, what’s your three for? My blog festival going to be?

00;18;08;15 – 00;18;13;27
Speaker 2
Well, we’re going to meet with, Do you know the band Drug Church locally?

00;18;14;00 – 00;18;15;09
Speaker 1
It sounds familiar.

00;18;15;11 – 00;18;23;26
Speaker 2
They went on tour with blink 182 the last two years, and in the hardcore scene, they’re pretty big deal. But half of them live in Glens Falls.

00;18;23;28 – 00;18;24;18
Speaker 1
Oh. No kidding.

00;18;24;25 – 00;18;30;24
Speaker 2
Yeah. And so they came to our festival actually to see Industry Standard. I don’t know if you know, Damien.

00;18;30;26 – 00;18;33;18
Speaker 1
I actually I do, because I hear Liam talk about them all the time.

00;18;33;21 – 00;18;54;28
Speaker 2
Yeah. He’s very, unusual and very talented. One of my faves. So, Corey from Drug Church came to see industry standard and then saw everything that we were doing and was like, wow, this is incredible. You know, obviously as a larger band, we have a big platform. So they basically either want to play for us, which would be crazy because we would need a bigger venue.

00;18;55;01 – 00;19;18;13
Speaker 2
Or they want to help us find some bigger acts just to increase attendance overall. Because if we had some bigger headliners, I think we would have, you know, double or triple the attendance because they’re all kind of smaller bands or like less bands, which is part of the the beauty of it. But so the hope for next year is that we have our partnership with Cafe Lena, we have our partnership with Drug Church.

00;19;18;16 – 00;19;32;14
Speaker 2
We’re even more organized. We don’t have to spend as much money on safety equipment. And so we get to make more and give more to the nonprofit next year. And, yeah, I think it’s just bigger and louder. And bigger.

00;19;32;14 – 00;19;33;14
Speaker 1
And louder. A lot bigger.

00;19;33;14 – 00;19;35;12
Speaker 2
Louder. Make more money. Those are. Those are the hopes.

00;19;35;15 – 00;19;56;14
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Jack, I want to I, you know, I want to talk a little bit about you. I know the the big thing we want to talk about, obviously, was the mind blowing festival, but I also want to, talk a little bit about who you are and what you do and your business. So, for our listeners, for our viewers, can you just kind of give us the, the overview about, what you do?

00;19;56;17 – 00;20;21;19
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I, started back when I was 21 as a flash animator and hand-drawn illustrator. So I was doing, you know, mobile games, web games. I worked on the Kung Fu Panda game, like, animating the, the death animations for the enemies and stuff. So I have a degree in computer science and then jumped into an agency as an animator and, programmer for for flash games.

00;20;21;21 – 00;20;25;27
Speaker 2
And then, started going to tweet ups. Do you remember those?

00;20;26;00 – 00;20;26;19
Speaker 1
What’s a tweet.

00;20;26;19 – 00;20;46;19
Speaker 2
Up? A tweet up was back in the day, back when Twitter first came out. We would meet at 9 a.m. everybody who was local, who was on Twitter, that was a business owner, you would meet in person to exchange business cards and follow each other on Twitter so you could support each other’s businesses. And so people found out that I did illustrated portraits and started hiring me.

00;20;46;19 – 00;21;04;28
Speaker 2
This was my first, like, kind of contractor job, hiring me to illustrate portraits of them for their Twitter profiles. And so that was kind of how I got into digital marketing and social media to start. And then honestly, over the last 15 years, people just keep asking me if I can do stuff and I just figure it out.

00;21;05;01 – 00;21;28;14
Speaker 2
So I end up being kind of like, like a leading edge marketer. Like with white glove janitorial service. We were accidentally ahead of the curve on narrative, short form, video as a as a marketing thing. But so, yeah, from animating and illustrating, I then got into making websites on Squarespace, and now I can make a Squarespace website so quickly that I don’t have to charge that much.

00;21;28;21 – 00;21;52;16
Speaker 2
So a lot of people who are very, very new and have almost no startup money can come to me for a very, very cheap website just to get something started. Or if they have more of a budget, we can make something fancier. But so I’ve built websites, I’ve done video campaigns, I’ve done social campaigns. And I’ve just learned a lot about marketing just by testing a lot of theories and sometimes with my own content and my own business.

00;21;52;18 – 00;22;13;20
Speaker 2
And I will say, the big thing I’m leaning into right now outside of events and PR is, I’m doing a lot of technical SEO to prepare websites for I search, I love I dashboards, I love keyword gap research. I get so much out of it. And so now everybody gets an overhaul. Oh, my God, it’s so fun.

00;22;13;22 – 00;22;32;11
Speaker 2
And like, everyone’s SEO is, like, in the blender. Like, everything that used to work doesn’t work. Now it’s like you get to test all these new hypotheses. So I’m really leaning into that and enjoying that a lot this year. But yeah, I just like to learn and I like to connect with people. I like to help people get attention, and I like to help people be memorable more than anything.

00;22;32;13 – 00;22;35;16
Speaker 2
So, yeah, so I do that in a lot of different ways.

00;22;35;19 – 00;22;40;22
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. And, and shout out to Chris Parnell from over at Link Club too. We love Chris is great, dude.

00;22;40;23 – 00;22;43;25
Speaker 2
He’s the best he is that he gives me to so many people.

00;22;43;28 – 00;22;56;20
Speaker 1
Yeah. And it’s it’s I love seeing his business grow too, because I remember, you know, just a few years ago when he started and, he’s come a long way and doing amazing. So I’m really happy for him and the work that you’re obviously doing with him as well as has.

00;22;56;20 – 00;22;59;05
Speaker 2
Been since season two starts filming next week.

00;22;59;07 – 00;23;01;07
Speaker 1
Oh yeah.

00;23;01;09 – 00;23;06;15
Speaker 2
Stay tuned. Stay tuned for the White Glove cinematic universe.

00;23;06;18 – 00;23;24;24
Speaker 1
Well I think that is one of the fun things about marketing though right now is you really like everybody has a platform to be able to create content and tell stories and you know, and just have fun, right? I definitely that’s the one thing I’ve liked about the digital marketing era, is just how easy it is to have fun, when you’re doing marketing.

00;23;24;24 – 00;23;57;14
Speaker 1
Right. Because it should be fun. And the I stuff, you know, so I want to dig in with that a little bit. Because obviously you were spot on with everybody’s CEOs in the blender, right? Because Google changed the rules. All the, you know, consumer behavior is changing at a wild pace. That has been so crazy to watch, especially the last six months, where you go from like 4% market penetration with AI to 60, 70, depending on which generation we’re talking about, like millennials are.

00;23;57;18 – 00;24;12;10
Speaker 1
I think it’s almost 80% now as far as that. I’m using, I instead of doing traditional search. So, do you want to tell the audience of just a little bit about what that looks like for you when you’re working with brands and how you’re helping them on the the AI side of things?

00;24;12;12 – 00;24;33;17
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, a big part of it is that so many people have a beautiful website that was built ten years ago that has almost no words on it, and a couple pretty pictures. But if you if I doesn’t explicitly understand what you do, who it’s for, what problems you solve in these beautiful little chunks and sentences that it can pull a snippet from, you might as well be invisible at this point.

00;24;33;18 – 00;24;58;18
Speaker 2
I And if you don’t have that, well, this is a theory of mine. I could probably validate it with some data, but if you don’t have that credibility from, you know, being linked to other credible content, other credible sites, because it’s just it’s so easy to lie, though. Anybody can throw anything on the internet. And so, you know, those press releases and stuff, those in-person things which can be validated as real, then also add to your credibility and I might serve you up.

00;24;58;21 – 00;25;20;04
Speaker 2
So it’s harder than ever, I think, to prove yourself. And for people who don’t have any SEO background, I imagine it could be very overwhelming to try to think about how to catch up. But I really think I think for most people, honestly, still just optimizing your Google business profile, if you’re brick and mortar, probably 90% of what people really need.

00;25;20;04 – 00;25;41;00
Speaker 2
And then if you’re a service provider like us, just just tuning your own horn a lot and talking a lot about what you do, what you’ve done, who you’ve done it for, that kind of stuff. I find it thrilling because I always like a disruption. So this is like an opportunity for people who maybe weren’t top of search to get ahead of their competition, especially if they’re smaller and more agile.

00;25;41;07 – 00;25;52;10
Speaker 2
And then you could you could write the right thing and get a snippet from I and totally displace someone who has been, you know, hogging the market this whole time because they have written 40,000 blog articles, you know?

00;25;52;13 – 00;26;12;27
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, that is a pretty wild thing. It’s interesting to me to see, like for the last almost 20 years now, we’ve worked so hard on creating all this content that was, you know, keywords and indexable and being able to be found. And now it’s like, well, yeah, I mean, it helps and but there’s all these other things.

00;26;13;03 – 00;26;15;27
Speaker 1
And to your point, like the Google business profile.

00;26;16;00 – 00;26;17;06
Speaker 2
You know. Yeah, don’t sleep on that.

00;26;17;08 – 00;26;19;01
Speaker 1
I don’t sleep on that though.

00;26;19;03 – 00;26;41;19
Speaker 2
And the other thing I’ll say with organic content, because, you know, I’ve been doing short form and video for so long, you know, there was a time when everyone was like, oh, I’m going to make an AI generated twin of myself, or I’m going to, you know, use all these AI generated graphics and the the public opinion of AI generated graphics and video is so poor, in my experience, at least in the communities that I serve.

00;26;41;24 – 00;27;04;25
Speaker 2
If I were to use AI generated graphics in any way, my brand would be decimated. And so I deliberately use hand-drawn and sketchy elements to prove that I’m human. I deliberately, you know, might not have a perfect background or perfect lighting. So I would say being imperfect is more of a leverage point for video and photo content right now, because perfection is now a little bit almost like disgusting to some people.

00;27;04;27 – 00;27;20;01
Speaker 2
It’s like uncanny valley, like, ooh, I don’t trust it. And so the more human you can be, the more valuable your content is. Which is great because I hate being perfect, and that was always a barrier for me or a stress point for me. And now I can be like, oh, I’m a little rough around the edges. And that’s how you know I’m not a robot.

00;27;20;03 – 00;27;22;16
Speaker 2
Yeah, it’s not like us is important.

00;27;22;19 – 00;27;50;01
Speaker 1
Yeah. That authentic, look and feel, the things I think is super important. I, I just had Dave Globus and from DMG illustrations on yesterday. I don’t know if you know Dave or not, but, we were having that same conversation, you know, because he does, portraiture. And, you know, it’s just like one of the conversations that we had was around the fact that, like, the AI generated visual elements are just they’re kind of disposable, right?

00;27;50;01 – 00;27;59;18
Speaker 1
Like you just throw them in the trash. But when there’s real human energy and effort behind things, it seems like it’s it’s becoming a lot more valuable than it’s ever been. Some.

00;27;59;20 – 00;28;21;17
Speaker 2
Right. Like at Mind Blown, we had these incredibly illustrated posters that were hand printed, silk screened on this beautiful antique cardstock. And to hold them in your hands, it’s feels like an artifact. It it feels it has a texture to it, and it’s beautiful. And you want to save it and preserve it. But if we had an AI generated flier, nothing.

00;28;21;19 – 00;28;22;27
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know.

00;28;23;00 – 00;28;27;00
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. Just doesn’t have the same joie de vivre.

00;28;27;03 – 00;28;29;02
Speaker 2
Well, and I can go ahead.

00;28;29;05 – 00;28;30;19
Speaker 1
No, you go ahead. Chuck.

00;28;30;22 – 00;28;49;23
Speaker 2
I gave a talk at Suny a couple months ago about why it’s so important to pay artists, and part of that is that they are already the most disadvantaged, class of entrepreneurs. And so to take away what little livelihood they already had, if you can afford to pay an artist is, to me, ethically inappropriate. I think it’s important to support the arts.

00;28;49;23 – 00;29;07;02
Speaker 2
I’m also an artist, but, you know, I’m a patron and an artist. But I think more than that, like when you put your money where your mouth is in your business, when you show what you believe in, whether it’s running a food drive, you know, sponsoring a mental health festival, people pay attention to what values you tie yourself to.

00;29;07;10 – 00;29;26;13
Speaker 2
And you have to ask yourself, what values are my demonstrating with an eye generated flier? That’s the perhaps, you know, to me, it’s careless. To me it is. I don’t have the time or the energy to communicate to you in a way that, personally, I find I generated fliers kind of hard to read. I don’t think they have a very good accessibility pass on that stuff.

00;29;26;13 – 00;29;46;02
Speaker 2
So it’s also not accessible. It’s not disability friendly. So there’s just a lot of, values that can be demonstrated by supporting the arts and associating your business with that value. Because I think a lot of consumers, especially around here, have that value, that the arts are important and we don’t want them to be replaced by robots, even if it’s fast and easy.

00;29;46;05 – 00;29;59;04
Speaker 1
100%. Chuck, I know we’re getting short on time, so if people want to, they want to find you. They want to learn more about mind blown. They want to learn more about you and your business and maybe work with you, how they find you.

00;29;59;06 – 00;30;20;22
Speaker 2
So if you go to Chuck Viacom. Okay. Copy. N spiral. That basically has case studies about all the random things I’ve done, that have works. So if you’re like, oh, what are the things district done? I’ve also done a Ted talk. I’ve written a book, hosted some open mics. There’s there’s a lot out there.

00;30;20;24 – 00;30;37;06
Speaker 2
But yeah, Chuck opens. Viacom is a good hub. And same mind blowing festival.com can tell you a lot about what we’ve done there. And then yeah, just generally keep an eye if I’d say if people follow me on Facebook, or LinkedIn, that’s where I kind of shout out all the random stuff that I’m involved in.

00;30;37;06 – 00;30;42;26
Speaker 2
So it’s probably the best. It’s like a newsletter, I guess, for. Yeah, all the different associations.

00;30;42;28 – 00;30;54;09
Speaker 1
Awesome. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you coming on, I appreciate you. I’m sorry we couldn’t get on, before Mind Blown was happening, but, glad that we got to do a little post up and talk about how it went, which it sounds like it went amazing.

00;30;54;11 – 00;30;57;29
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, it was a really great time. And I’m already excited for next year for sure.

00;30;58;02 – 00;31;16;23
Speaker 1
Love it. Well, thank you for coming on, Chuck. I really appreciate it. And of course, thank you everybody for listening. You can find us at buying local.us and the podcasts are on Apple Spotify, Rumble YouTube. Join our newsletter, weekly emails, all the fun stuff. Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks again Chuck. Appreciate it. Thank you.